Friday, February 28, 2014

Hurun Report released the Hurun Global Rich List 2014, a ranking of the US dollar billionaires currently found in the world. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 17 January 2014. This is the third year that Hurun Report has released a ranking of the dollar billionaires in the world, the so-called ‘Nine-Zero Club’.

US ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND IT BOOM DRIVES WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES UP 414 TO 1867

BILL GATES TAKES BACK TOP SPOT FROM MEXICAN CARLOS SLIM; NEW YORK REASSERTS ITSELF OVER MOSCOW AS BILLIONAIRES PREFERRED CITY

· CHINESE STOCK EXCHANGESATTRACT MORE BILLIONAIRES THAN US, FOR SECOND YEAR RUNNING.

· 4500 DOLLAR BILLIONAIRES IN GLOBE, UP 500 FROM LAST YEAR. “FOR EVERY ONE WE HAVE FOUND, WE HAVE MISSED AT LEAST ONE, MEANING THERE ARE LIKELY TO BE 4500 NOW IN THE WORLD,” SAYS RUPERT HOOGEWERF, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF RESEARCHER OF HURUN REPORT.

(25 February 2014, Beijing, China) Hurun Report today released the Hurun Global Rich List 2014, a ranking of the US dollar billionaires currently found in the world. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 17 January 2014. This is the third year that Hurun Report has released a ranking of the dollar billionaires in the world, the so-called ‘Nine-Zero Club’. The Hurun Global Rich List 2014 is sponsored by Chinese luxury property developer Star River Property.

A 33% resurgence in the US stock markets was the major driver for a record year for the world’s billionaires. Of the 1867 billionaires, 946 saw their wealth increase – 152 saw their wealth increase by over 50% - and there were 482 new faces. Only 318 individuals saw their wealth decrease and 123 remained unchanged.

The total wealth of the 1867 billionaires amounted to a staggering US$6.9 trillion, more than the GDP of Japan, the third largest global economy.

The average age is 64, up one year from last year. One in nine is female, compared with one in ten last year. Over half self-made women are Chinese.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said, “The US economic recovery and an IT boom have driven the world’s billionaires to record levels. What with the main growth in new billionaires coming from the US, New York overtaking Moscow, technology overtaking real estate as the primary source of wealth and Bill Gates taking back top spot from Mexican Carlos Slim, it has been a year when developed markets have reasserted themselves against emerging markets.”

“China’s billionaires are shooting up the Hurun Global Rich List. This is why Hurun Report, a media headquartered in Shanghai, China, has set out on this quest to track down and rank the world’s billionaires.”

At 59, Bill Gates shot back up to Number One with a fortune of US$68bn, up US$14bn on the past year, mainly on the back of strong gains in his investments. Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft this year, leaving him more time for his philanthropy.

Warren Buffett, 84, and Zara founder Amancio Ortega, 78, were second and third for the second year running, growing 10% and 13% to US$64bn and US$62bn respectively.

Carlos Slim Helu, 75, lost the top spot that he had been holding for the past two years, after seeing his wealth drop by US$6Bn, mainly on the back of a 9% drop in the value of America Movil and a weak Mexican Peso.

Larry Ellison, 70, saw his wealth increase by US$5bn, thanks to a 25% gain in Oracle’s stocks. The bulk of his fortune comes from his 23% stake in Oracle.

Bernard Arnault, 65, the ‘King of Luxury’, saw his wealth drop by US$5bn, on the back of an 11% fall in LVMH.

Jeff Bezos, 51, of Amazon and ‘Casino King’ Sheldon Adelson, 81, both broke into the Top 10 for the first time, after Amazon and Las Vegas Sands surged 30% and 67%. Bezos is the youngest member of the global top ten.

In this past year, Wang Jianlin of Wanda (US$25bn, rank 26), 60, has dominated headlines in China, both for his domestic activity, where he has now become the largest landlord in the country with 18 million square meters, and internationally. Wang has succeeded in listing his US cinema chain, has purchased Sunseeker, a UK luxury yacht brand, has announced a US$1bn development in London and has purchased a Picasso painting for US$28 million. Wang is the highest ranked Mainlander since records began. Little wonder Wang was the Hurun Most Respected Entrepreneur of the Year 2013.

The Chinese Year of the Horse is shaping up to be a two-horse race between Jack Ma of Alibaba(tripling to US$7.1bn, rank 192) and Pony Ma of Tencent (doubling to US$14bn, rank 70) for domination of China’s internet space. The family name ‘Ma’ in Chinese means horse and 2014 is the Year of the Horse in China. Alibaba, in which Jack owns 7%, dominates ecommerce in China and is expected to be worth over US$100bn after the much anticipated IPO later this year. Tencent’s WeChat tool dominates communications.

New energy tycoon Li Hejun, shot straight into 136th place with a US$9.1bn fortune, from his hydropower and solar businesses.

Rags to Riches and back to Rags in 3 Generations

68% are self-made. Of the 32% that inherited their wealth, 331 are second generation, 119 third generation, and 47, or 2.5%, are from the 4th generation or more.

Deaths.Four billionaires from last year’s Hurun Global Rich List died last year: Rosalia Mera, Patrick Ricard, Barbara Piasecka Johnson and Otto Beisheim. Rosalia Mera, ex-wife of Amancio Ortega and co-founder of Zara, died in August 2013, leaving US$6.1bn, 90% of her wealth, to her daughter Sandra, 45.

Passing on wealth.Bridgit Rausing, widow of Gad Rausing, heir to packaging giant Tetra Pak gave away her US$14bn fortune to her three children Kristen, Finn & Jorn Rausing.

Oldest.The oldest billionaires are 99 year old David Rockefeller Sr (US$2.9bn, rank 596), followed by two 98 year old billionaires; investor Henry Hillman ($2.2bn, rank 852) and Taiwanese Lin Yu-Chia(US$1.7bn, rank 1139).

Till Divorce makes us rich. Slavica Ecclestone received a US$1.2bn settlement from F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone after their 23 year marriage, ranking her in her own right on the list at 1211.

Others of Note

L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt dropped down by one place to 11th, but maintained her title of richest woman on the planet with a US$34bn fortune.

86-year old Li Ka-Shing saw his wealth increase by US$1bn to retain his title of Asia’s Richest Man. Li has courted controversy in China by selling off much of his Mainland China landbank, leading investors to wonder whether China’s property market has peaked.

The 41-year old Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin broke into the Top 20, after seeing Google’s stock price increase 50%. Page is also an investor into Elon Musk-founded Tesla Motors, whose stock price quadrupled in the last year. Musk was the biggest gainer last year.

Walton family. Were the Wal-mart fortunes to be combined, the family would have US$129bn this year, making them the richest family in the world by far.

Stefan Persson, 67, saw his wealth rise by US$7.7bn, on the back of a 25% increase in H&M’s stock price.

Star River Property, a luxury property developer in China, is the sponsor of the Hurun Global Rich List 2014. Star River Property is owned by Huang Wenzai, ranked 789, with a personal wealth of US$2.3bn.

Politics. 97 have senior political roles, led by 5 ruling families. The richest monarch is the Sultan of Brunei, coming in at 35th place with a net worth of US$20bn. Also making the list for the first time are the rulers of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Liechtenstein & Morocco. However the richest royal is Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud of the Saudi royal family with a net worth of US$29bn.

90 Chinese billionaires have senior political positions, up from 83 last year. Mainland Chinese led by NPC delegate Zong Qinghou of Wahaha (US$20bn, rank 35), and CPPCC delegate Robin Li of Baiduwith US$10bn.Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, is the richest former politician, coming in at 24th place with US$27bn.

Where they live

The US is home to 481 billionaires, followed by China with 358 billionaires. Between the Big Two, they now have half of all billionaires on the planet. The UK, Japan, Switzerland, India and Russia grew fast.

New Yorkis officially the ‘Billionaire Capital of the World’, taking the title from Moscow for the first time. 84 of the Hurun Billionaires live in the Big Apple, up 14 from 70 last year.

51% of new billionaires reside in Asia.Asia is drawing away from North America with 216 new billionaires to take it to 824 individuals, followed by North America with 528 billionaires and Europe 371.

Table: Where they live - Hurun Global Rich List 2014

Country

No. of Billionaires

Change in No. of Billionaires

City

No. of Billionaires

Change in No. of Billionaires

1-

USA

481

72

1↑

New York

84

14

2-

China

358

41

2↓

Moscow

77

1

3-

Russia

103

15

3-

Hong Kong

65

11

4↑

UK

77

22

4-

Beijing

57

16

5↑

India

70

17

4-

London

49

10

6↓

Germany

66

5

6↑

Mumbai

33

9

7-

Switzerland

56

15

7↓

Istanbul

28

2

8↑

Brazil

48

15

7↑

Taipei

28

6

9↑

Japan

43

21

9↓

Paris

27

4

10-

France

37

6

9↑

Seoul

27

10

10↓

Chinese Taipei

37

5

9↑

Shenzhen

27

5

12-

Canada

35

13

9↑

Tokyo

27

16

13↓

Turkey

32

1

9↑

Singapore

27

13

14↑

Australia

29

13

14↓

Sao Paulo

26

7

15↑

Singapore

28

17

15↓

San Francisco

24

6

16↓

South Korea

27

10

15↓

Shanghai

24

-

16↑

Indonesia

27

16

17↓

Los Angeles

20

4

18↓

Italy

22

8

18↑

Jakarta

19

1

19↓

Spain

20

6

18↓

Hangzhou

19

15

20↑

UAE

17

9

19↑

Bangkok

17

13

19↑

Dallas

17

2

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2014 sponsored by Star River Property

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy

The USA: Ranks No 1 with 481 billionaires; 72 more than 2013. Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) overtook investments to become the main source of wealth for American billionaires, followed by retail. TMT, investments and retail made up 113, 108 and 56 billionaires respectively. The combined wealth of the US billionaires was US$2.2 trillion. New York is America’s (and the world’s) city with the highest concentration of billionaires, with 84, followed by San Francisco and LA on 24 and 20 respectively. The USA is also the world’s capital for immigrant billionaires, attracting 42 billionaires.

China:Despite a lacklustre real estate sector, China has added 41 new billionaires to consolidate its second position with 358 billionaires behind the USA. Real estate, manufacturing and investments made up over 60% of the wealth generated. IT and entertainment were the fastest growing. Beijing and HK led the way with 57 and 49 respectively, followed by Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hangzhou on 27, 24 and 19. Average age is 56 years, 8 years younger than the average age of the Hurun Global Rich List. Total wealth US$963bn.

Russia: Comes in third with 103 billionaires; 16 more than 2013. All are self-made. The most popular sectors are energy, real estate and manufacturing with 24, 13 and 11 billionaires respectively. Moscow is home to 77 billionaire, the second highest in the world. Combined wealth of the Russian billionaires comes to US$390bn. Overall wealth of Russian billionaires grew by 6%.

UK: Up one place to 4th place with 78 billionaires, 22 more than 2013. London is the overwhelming city of choice for 48 billionaires followed by Slough for 4 billionaires. Retail, real estate and TMT are the biggest wealth creators with 14, 13 and 9 billionaires respectively. Combined wealth of US$262 million. Overall wealth of UK billionaires dropped by 16%.Ukrainian-born Leonard Blavatnik and India-born Lakshmi Mittal are the richest people living in the UK. Richard Branson with US$5.8bn is the richest self-made Brit.

India: Up one place to No 5 with 70 billionaires, 17 more than 2013. Manufacturing, pharma and TMT are the preferred sectors with 17, 12 and 10 billionaires respectively. Combined wealth of the Indians billionaires comes to US$390bn. Mumbai is headquarters to most of the Indian billionaires.Mukesh Ambani (US$18bn, rank 41) is the richest Indian. 15 Indians live outside of India, the highest proportion of any country. This past year, the Indian Rupee weakened by 12% against the US Dollar, making it harder for Indians to make the cut-off.

Germany:Dropped down two places to No 6 with 66 billionaires, despite having 5 more than 2013.Karl Albrecht is the richest German (US$29bn, rank 22). F&B, retail and TMT are the most popular sectors with 16, 11 and 11 billionaires respectively. Hamburg is the preferred city with 9 billionaires living there.

Switzerland:7th with 56 billionaires, 15 more than 2013. The No 1 city for billionaires is Geneva. Preferred sectors are pharma, luxury and manufacturing with 9 billionaires each. Combined wealth of the Swiss billionaires cumulates to US$203bn.

Brazil:8th with 48 billionaires, 15 more than 2013. Combined wealth of the Brazilian billionaires totals US$167bn. Financial services is preferred industry with 12 billionaires followed by F&B and Real Estate with 7 billionaires each.

Japan: 9th with 43 billionaires, 21 more than 2013, despite the Yen losing 6% against the dollar. Combined wealth of the Japanese billionaires cumulates to US$138.2bn. The preferred sector is TMT with 15 billionaires followed by retail with 11. Tokyo is the preferred city.

France:10th with 37 billionaires., 6 more than 2013. Combined wealth of the French billionaires is US$270bn. The preferred sector is luxury with 10 billionaires followed by F&B with 7 billionaires. Paris is the most preferred city.

Chinese Taipei:10th with 37 billionaires, 5 more than 2013. Taipei is the preferred city. Manufacturing is the preferred sector. Tsai Eng-Meng is the richest person (US$11bn, rank106).

Oceania is the only continent where a woman leads the billionaires’ list. (Georgina Rinehart, US$15.9bn, rank 54).

Table: Billionaires by Continent – Hurun Global Rich List 2014

Continent

No: of Billionaires

Change in no of billionaires yoy

Combined Wealth US$bn

1

Asia

824

216

2393

2

North America

528

88

2438

3

Europe

372

48

1612

4

South America

81

32

277

5

Africa

33

16

103

6

Oceania

31

14

94

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2014 sponsored by Star River Property

Young & Rich

26 billionaires are under 40, led by 23-year-old and 25-year-old SnapChat founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. 5 of the 26 are from Facebook, one of whom is the WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum. 13 are self-made with 13 inherited. Of the self-made, all are male, and 9 reside in the US with 2 in Japan.

Table: Billionaires under 40 years – Hurun Global Rich List 2014

AGE

NAME

NET WORTH US$bn

SOURCE OF WEALTH

SOURCE

GENDER

COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE

23

Evan Spiegel

1.1

SnapChat

Self made

M

USA

25

Bobby Murphy

1.1

SnapChat

Self made

M

USA

30

Mark Zuckerberg

31

Facebook

Self made

M

USA

30

Dustin Moskovitz

9.3

Facebook

Self made

M

USA

31

Albert von Thurn und Taxis

2.0

Real Estate

Inherited

M

Germany

32

Scott Duncan

6.1

Energy

Inherited

M

USA

32

Eduardo Saverin

3.0

Facebook

Self made

M

Singapore

33

Yang Huiyan & family

8.2

Real Estate

Inherited

F

China

33

Fahd Hariri

1.4

Construction

Inherited

M

France

33

Li Zhaohui & family

1.3

Steel

Inherited

M

China

34

Marie Besnier Beauvalot

1.8

Food & Beverages

Inherited

F

France

35

Sean Parker

3.5

Facebook

Self made

M

USA

36

Ayman Hariri

1.4

Construction

Inherited

M

Saudi Arabia

37

Alejandro Santo Domingo Davila

12.5

Sab Miller

Inherited

M

USA

37

Jan Koum

8.5

WhatsApp

Self made

M

USA

37

Jack Dorsey

2.5

Twitter

Self made

M

USA

37

Yvonne Bauer & family

2.5

Entertainment

Inherited

F

Germany

37

Merlin Swire & Family

2.3

Swire Pacific

Inherited

M

UK

37

Yoshikazu Tanaka

1.9

Gree International

Self made

M

Japan

37

Maxim Nogotkov

1.5

Svyaznoy Retail

Self made

M

Russia

38

Lawrence Ho

2.8

Casinos

Inherited

M

China

38

Julia Oetker

1.2

Food & Beverages

Inherited

F

Germany

39

Chase Coleman, III

1.8

Hedge Fund

Self made

M

USA

39

Nicholas Woodman

1.4

GoPro

Self made

M

USA

39

Serra Sabanci

1.2

Banking

Inherited

F

Turkey

39

Yusaku Maezawa

1.1

Zozo Town

Self made

M

Japan

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2014 sponsored by Star River Property

Evan Spiegel & Bobby Murphytogether founded SnapChat, a photo messaging app whose unique feature is that senders can control how long recipients can view the image before it vanishes from their inbox. Both Facebook & Google have made offers to buyout the innovators, only to be turned down by the youngest billionaires in the world. The buyout offers valued the app in excess of US$3bn.

Zuckerberg continues to disrupt the way we communicate and in the process managed to make himself and his cofounders at Facebook billionaires. 30% of the billionaires under 40 hail from social media/ networking industry.

Sean Parker, 35, is the first president of Facebook and co-founder of Napster. He is one of the partners of Founders Fund that has an AUM of US$1bn. Recently made headlines for spending US$4.5 million on his wedding to singer Alexandra Lenas.

Wealth favours the disruptors

Technology overtook real estate to become the biggest wealth-creating sector.

Table: Source of Wealth – Hurun Global Rich List 2014

Industry

No. of billionaires

Change in No. of billionaires

Richest Person

Company

1↑

Technology, Media & Telecoms

257

57

Larry Ellison

Oracle

2↓

Real Estate

253

34

Li Ka-shing

Cheung Kong

3↑

Manufacturing

186

75

Pallonji Mistry

Tata Sons

4↓

Investments

184

15

Bill Gates

Microsoft

5↓

Retail

180

46

Amancio Ortega

Inditex

6↑

Food & Beverages

138

40

Michele Ferrero

Ferrero Rocher

7↓

Energy

123

22

Charles & David Koch

Koch Industry

8-

Financial Services

114

26

Joseph Safra

Grupo Safra

9-

Pharmaceuticals

81

13

Dilip Shanghvi

Sun Pharma

10↑

Heavy Industry

45

10

Aliko Dangote

Dangote Cement

11-

Automobile

43

2

Susanne Klatten

BMW

12↓

Mining

39

-3

Georgina Rinehart

Roy Hill Iron Ore Mine

13↑

Logistics and Shipping

37

7

Jack Taylor

Enterprise Rent A Car

14

Luxury

34

2

Bernard Arnault

LVMH

15

Hospitality

30

-2

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jber

Mbi Internation

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2014 sponsored by Star River Property

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy

Technology produced the most billionaires – 257, accounting for 13.7% of the entire list. Newcomers include the founders of WhatsApp, Twitter, Qihoo360. Other tech and media stocks that grew by more than 50% included Alpha Animation of China, Alibaba, Facebook, LinkedIn, Softbank, Tencent, Groupon, Google, Yahoo, Netease, Axel Springer and JC Decaux.

The US has the most number of TMT billionaires, followed by China. It is interesting to note that a technology hub like India does not have a TMT billionaire on the Hurun Global Rich List 2014. The US has added more women tech billionaires, led by Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook. The richest tech billionaire is Laurene Powell Jobs (US$14bn, rank 70), widow of Steve Jobs.

50% of TMT wealth came from technology, followed by entertainment & media at 24% & 15% respectively. Telecoms came in last with 10.5%.

Chinese diaspora. 457 billionaires are of Chinese origin. Outside of China and Chinese Taipei, the Chinese diaspora are based predominantly in South East Asia, led by Singapore and Indonesia. 8 reside in the US, led by David Sun and John Tu of Kingston Technology on US$4.1bn each.

Table: Billionaires of Chinese Origin: Where they live – Hurun Global Rich List

COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE

No. of Billionaires of Chinese Origin

1

China

358

2

Chinese Taipei

37

3

Singapore

19

4

Indonesia

13

5

Philippines

8

5

USA

8

7

Malaysia

7

8

Thailand

5

9

Australia

1

9

UK

1

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2014 sponsored by Star River Property

7 of the 10 richest real estate tycoons are Chinese. Although real estate slowed in China, Wang Jianlin of Wanda was the biggest winner amongst the global real estate tycoons, shooting up to second place behind Li Ka-shing. There were four new faces in the Top 10, led by Thai tycoon Tos Chirathivat.

15 Indian billionaires now reside outside of India, making India the top country to emigrate out of, followed by US billionaires, several of whom have moved out for tax reasons.

Countries

No. of Billionaires Emigrated

1

India

15

2

USA

13

3

Russia

10

3

UK

10

3

Germany

10

6

Chinese Taipei

9

6

China

9

6

Italy

9

9

South Africa

8

9

Ukraine

8

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2014 sponsored by Star River Property

Stats

The cut-off required to make the Top Ten shot up by US$6bn to US$36bn, whilst the cut-off to make the Top 100 required an extra US$1bn.

Rank on List

2014 Cut-off required US$bn

2013 Cut-off required US$bn

10

36

30

100

11.5

10.5

200

6.9

6.1

500

3.4

2.9

1000

2.0

1.5

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2014 sponsored by Star River Property

Currency fluctuations

Global currency witnessed a highly volatile year with an average 16% drop against the US Dollar. The Argentina Peso recorded the steepest drop of 25%. Currency depreciation has made it harder for billionaires from these countries to make the Hurun Global Rich List. Japanese billionaires fared surprisingly well, despite the 15% drop in the value of the Japanese Yen, on the back of significant hikes in market cap of as SoftBank, Fast Retailing and Rakuten.

China has more billionaires listed on its stock exchanges than the USA, leading with 245 compared with 240 billionaires listed in the USA. The US Stock Exchanges had a good year, with a gain of 33%, followed by China (22%) and UK (11%). Major countries in Latin America had a bad year with a declined performance of -19% (Brazil) and 8% (Mexico).